The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) held a press conference on March 28 to update the media on the unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination and the settlement of post-war UXO consequences in Vietnam.

Recent test results that showed 90/ 100 underwater samples in Ho Chi Minh City were polluted has raised concern in the public and city residents want the local government to issue urgent measures to reduce environmental pollution.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will consider permitting Taiwanese steel plan Formosa who polluted sea environment in the central region in April to run production only after the company completes waste treatment and control items.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan said that the ministry was working with relevant ministries and responsible agencies to announce sea environment status quo in the central region this month, creating a basis for locals’ awareness of safe and polluted areas.

According to the direct of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Secretary Dinh La Thang about cleaning up the city’s polluted canals, rivers and flows, the HCMC People’s Committee required relevant departments and agencies have to finish dredging 18 polluted water and drainage canals in Hoc Mon district and district 12 by the end of this year.

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has asked related agencies to complete dredging of 18 canals in Hoc Mon and District 12 by the end of this year in accordance with an instruction by Secretary of the city’s Party Committee Dinh La Thang.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc Friday has promised the government will make public "transparently and thoroughly" how it uses the US$500 million compensation to be paid by the Taiwanese company whose toxic effluents polluted the sea and killed fish en masse.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau decided to close Taiwanese Mei Sheng Textile Company’s factory, said Chief Inspector of the department Nguyen Thai Sinh on May 10.